Time To Fight (Char and Cobie)

Charlotte had decided that because she had been accepted into Silas' training group, that she personally should try to start training some more, however, she knew that it was more than likely to make her have a small attack of her heart condition, but she needed to know how to handle those attacks in case they occured when they were least wanted.

So, she had come to the Roman Ampitheatre, and she was borrowing some of the weapons that they had there, since she had left the swordmage sword at the house she shared with Cobie, not wanting to bring it in case she lost it, or in case someone stole it from her. Letting her hair trim itself into it's pixie crop, Charlotte looked at the punching bag and took a deep breath.

Closing her eyes she began to methodically punch at the bag, right, right then left, and then completing the sequence in reverse, left left right until she began to feel herself tensing up, but she pushed herself further and she took large breaths, trying to steady herself.

Stopping for a moment, Charlotte felt her chest tighten to painful levels and she reeled sideways, leaning against the wall as she tried to massage the pain out of her chest, but knowing that even with that simple exercise she had pushed herself too far, and she knew that she was getting worse.

Cobalt had been watching Charlotte a little bit more closely as of late. She seemed to be becoming more withdrawn. Distant from him and from those around her, even Airen to a degree. He could guess that it was about her heart condition, about her own mortality, but he didn't really know. After all, how could he? He wasn't a mind reader and even if he was he wouldn't delve into his daughter's mind like that. All he knew was that she was deeply upset by something.

So he'd followed her to the Ampitheatre and he watched as she attempted to train herself. The punches to the punching bag were weaker than they should have been, like she was afraid of straining herself. He paused for a moment before he made himself visible, standing beside the punching bag. He looked at his daughter for a second before casting a pain relief charm on her,

"Char... we need to talk." he told her quietly, "Specifically you need to tell me about your worries because I know you're worrying a great deal."

Charlotte jumped a little bit when she felt the pain suddenly start to leave her body and she blinked when she looked up and realised that Cobalt was there, she scowled a little bit, she didn't like it when he followed her invisibily, it was almost like he didn't trust her or something like that.

Standing upright now, with no need to bend over double, Charlotte straightened out of hair and she sighed lightly to herself;

"You know I really really don't like it when you do that Papa, if you wanted to come to the Ampitheatre with me you should have just asked me to come." she frowned, still massaging the knot on her chest to try and direct her gaze somewhere other than Cobalt.

Sighing gently, Charlotte frowned; "What do you want me to tell you about first?"

Cobalt knew that his daughter didn't much appreciate him simply appearing out of nowhere or following her. But he had to know what she was so upset about and she had been unlikely to just tell him at the home. She wanted to let off some steam, that much he could tell. He shrugged a little bit,

"Would you have honestly let me come with you?" he asked her with a small smile, "I know you Charlotte. You like to try and work things out on your own first."

Seeing that she was going to actually tell him, Cobalt smiled faintly and gestured for her to come closer,

"How about whatever makes you the most upset or angry?" he suggested, "You can punch the bag if it builds up while we talk about it."

Charlotte nodded her head, she would have actually let Cobalt come with her because she would not have known that he had some sort of ulterior motive to coming with her, she would have thought he was here to help her train herself up, and make sure that she was safe.

"Yes I would have let you come with me, I would have thought you were coming to teach me something cool, like you promised you were going to teach me." she sighed gently, her hair turning a baby blue shade as she became a little bit sad.

Almost grudgingly she walked closer to Cobalt and she wondered why he wanted her closer to him, stopping just in front of him, Charlotte shrugged her shoulders and looked at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with Cobalt;

"Well just normal teenage things really, and to be honest I'm a little worried about me and Airen."

Cobalt smiled a little bit. He had actually come with the intention of teaching her something as well. Two thing actually now that he thought about it. One of those things he'd thought of before but the other he'd decided to teach her when he saw how her heart pains completely brought her to her knees,

"Well just so happens that was one of the reasons for following you. I wanted to teach you two spells that would come in handy for you." he told her with a smile before nodding, "Of course I also wanted to talk to you to see how you were feeling."

He saw that his daughter could not look him in the eyes and he deflated visibly. Was she starting to hate him again? Cobalt thought they'd moved beyond that,

"Well how about you tell me about your worries about you and Airen?" he asked her gently, "Then I'll teach you a spell. Then we talk about what's troubling you some more alright?"

Charlotte looked at Cobalt disbelievingly when he told her that he had actually planned to give her some new spells when he started to follow her, it was very strange that he would mention that only now, when she had been dogging him for weeks to teach her something new.

"I don't think that this is the best place to talk about how I am feeling, we can't even sit down properly and there are big muscley men everywhere." she stated, a little aggrivatedly.

When Cobalt prompted her Charlotte thought that this was something that she shouldn't be talking about with her dad, but she didn't mind telling him if it would mean that he left the subject alone and didn't keep pestering her.

"I think that something is changing between us, we don't talk that much and when we do it's never really...about us..." she sighed gently "It's always about the war, or about sad things and there's other stuff too." Charlotte continued, rubbing her arm.

Cobalt could see the disbelief in his daughter's expression and didn't really blame her for it. He had been silent on the matter for awhile now. It was mainly because he'd been trying to think of the best spell to teach her. But now that he knew one he was more than willing to teach her in as soon as possible,

"I disagree. I think it's a good thing that we can talk about our feelings anywhere." he countered before putting up some silencing wards around them, "Now our conversation is private without a doubt."

He could tell that something about her relationship with Airen was really getting to her even after she told him about how they seemed to rarely speak. Cobalt nodded sadly,

"That does sound like a problem for your relationship. But all relationships run across problems, all you need to do is confront Airen about it and see if you can work it through." he told her with a small smile before pausing, "Do you want to tell me what the other stuff is or should I teach you a spell?"

Charlotte sighed a little bit and she couldn't make herself feel comfortable with the fact that they were not at home and even though they were now covered by silencing wards, Charlotte still felt like because they could be seen and she could see others, they could be heard.

"I don't think that I can talk about my feelings happily anywhere else but home, but thanks for letting me know that you think you can talk about your feelings anywhere." Charlotte frowned, almost upset by Cobie's no need for privacy.

Punching the bag with a small growl Charlotte frowned even more, letting her hair turn that fiery shade of red that it changed to when she turned angry.

"Well I don't want to 'confront' him about it, I have had enough of conflict and unhappiness, I don't really care about what you teach me to do or not, I'm not really in the mood."

Cobalt sighed a little bit, it seemed that nothing he was going to do was going to be enough for Charlotte to be comfortable talking about this. Perhaps she would never be comfortable talking to him about these kinds of things? Was it really just him? He didn't know,

"Charlotte I don't think I can talk about my feeling just anywhere." he told her quietly, "I think I can talk about them with you, regardless of where we are as long as we have some privacy and we have that."

Seeing his daughter angrily punch the punching bag made Cobalt sigh a little bit. He didn't like to see her angry or upset,

"Well if you don't then you'd best start praying that he does because if things stay the way they are you won't be happy." he told her without sugarcoating it because he knew that she knew he was right, "Now what else has been frustrating you? Don't say this conversation."

Charlotte always hated talking about things like this, or anything really, when it came to talking about them with Cobalt, he had such a manner that made her seem stupid for thinking the thing in the first place and it was something that she really hated. Which was why she often didn't talk to him about anything.

Once again Charlotte started to punch the punching bag, imagining that it was Cobalt's face as she let herself punch it harder than before, but soon she was panting from the effort and her chest began to tighten again until she had to stop and bent over double again, to catch her breath and stop the pain.

"I am frustrated with everything! I hate having to go to school and be alone because all my friends have f*cking died! I hate having to live in this f*cking war zone of a country where if I don't die from being blown up my heart conditions going to kill me anyway because we haven't even started to look at breaking this curse yet, or at least you haven't told me you have, which is even MORE annoying."

Taking a small breath, Charlotte continued;

"I am frustrated with not being able to actually kiss my boyfriend without wondering if he's going to push me away for going to far and I hate having to be the decoy spying person in this Ministry Group because I'll most likely have to go and do all the dangerous missions and sh*t like you did when you worked!"

Cobalt watched as his daughter raged at the punching bag, taking her frustrations of her life out on the thing. It was rather hurtful to be honest. She didn't seem to realise how much she had. No all she seemed to see was the negatives in her life. True enough she had more than her fair share of problems but that didn't mean that she had nothing good in her life, which is what she seemed to be saying. It hurt that she seemed to be frustrated at the world but only ever seemed to be able to focus it on him. He was honestly rather tired for being the stand in for the rest of her problems,

"Everything?" he asked her in a very quite voice, "You're frustrated at... everything? The world in general? Or just everything around you? I'm going to tell you something Charlotte and you're not going to like it. I'm going to tell you how you can move past your friends' deaths. I'm going to tell you how to deal with living in a country at war."

He looked at her evenly for a moment before speaking,

"You're going to have to look at your life... and see what makes it worthwhile." he told her with a faint smile, "You have to look at the good things that you have. A father who loves you. A good home to come back to. A boyfriend who, despite some problems, loves you. Friends at school."

When she mentioned Silas' 'team' that he was building with Charlotte he paused for a second,

"You don't have to do it Charlotte." he told her quietly, "God knows I don't want you to do what I did... to end up like me..."

Charlotte looked up from being bent over double and she glared at Cobalt, so he thought that she didn't do that most of the time anyway, he thought that she was some ungrateful teenager who only ever thought that her life was crap?

"Will you stop thinking that when I say everything I mean it as a personal attack on you Cobalt?" she asked a little cooly "Because it isn't, you just always ask me whats wrong and I always get annoyed when I tell you."

Taking a deep breath Charlotte hissed as she stood up;

"You think, that I'm some bratty teenager who hates everything and doesn't ever see the good in her life? Well you'd be wrong, I see the good in my life and most of the time I focus on that, but you can't deny I have bad in my life and sometimes it gets me down and frustrates me, am I allowed to be frustrated?"

Making her way towards the exit of the arena, Charlotte frowned once more, well and truly annoyed;

"Maybe I wanted to be a part of the group, to feel important. But to feel important now you have to die or do something crazy to do with war."